This invention is applicable to sports such as tennis, badminton and squash entailing the use of a racquet or like implement held in one.hand.
One source of mistimed shots in tennis is "droopy wrist" or a momentary dropping of the hand under the weight of the racquet at the critical moment when the racquet contacts the ball. This causes undercut on the ball when a full face strike was intended. A traditional approach to the elimination of this weakness has been to provide binding on the wrist in order to prevent it from dropping marginally as the stroke is played. Another known approach is a device such as the "Power-Play" trainer marketed by Concept House Inc. in which the racquet handle is fastened to a bracelet worn by the player by a tie which limits the downward movement of the hand and racquet.
The problem of wrist control has also been of concern in the fields of golfing and bowling and the literature includes various proposals for a style of accessory which is secured to the wrist and extends under the underside or back of the hand towards the region of the base of the fingers. Reference is made, for example, to U.S. Pat. No. 3,269,728 to Blough which discloses a rigid, moulded wrist support for bowlers which is held to the wrist and hand by spaced straps. The bowler's wrist support illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,794,638 to Risher et al. is similar in concept but provides built-in buckles and a rectangular rigidifying strip of aluminium or the like.
The golfer's interest is represented by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,423,095 to Cox and 3,700,245 to Nannini. Both of these papers provide a relatively broad band extending adjacent the back of the hand and held to the wrist by twin Velcro type fastener straps. Cox describes the band as rigid while Nannini recommends a "semi-rigid" band exhibiting a "very slight amount of flexibility" so as to be "not unduly rigid."
A device not structurally dissimilar to the above mentioned supports, but intended for a very different purpose, is the thumb and wrist protector of U.S. Pat. No. 1,471,948 to Cox et al. Here the thumb side of the hand lies adjacent a band which carries a reinforcing strip of leather and is tied to the wrist and thumb.
The present invention had found that none of these devices is wholly or even partly satisfactory for the strengthening of the wrist in tennis and like sports such as badminton and squash. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a device which at least in part resolves this difficulty.